South Korea Billet Imports Hit 7-year Low on Rising Domestic Production

As per custom data maintained by SteelMint since 2010, South Korea's Billet imports hit all time low in calendar year 2018.

The nation has imported about 1.87 MnT Billets, which is lowest since 2010. Prior to this it was in an and around of 2 to 2.5 MnT each year.

The significant fall in Billet imports attributes to rising crude steel production in the nation. On an average the nations crude steel production was close to 68-70 MnT since 2011, which is in 2018 (till Nov'18) recorded at 66.12 MnT and are expected to reach more than 72 MnT in 2018 (Jan-Dec).

Japan remains the largest Billet exporter to South Korea in 2018, with a contribution of 0.94 MnT (50.49%), followed by Indonesia at 0.43 MnT (23.16%) & Brazil at 0.27 MnT (14.35%).

Monthly analysis:

In Dec'18, South Korea has imported about 0.14 MnT Billet as against 0.07 MnT in Dec'17, rise by 100% Y-o-Y, as per customs data maintained by SteelMint.

Meanwhile on cumulative basis (Jan-Dec'18), Billet imports in South Korea has reported marginal downfall of about 7% and stood at around 1.89 MnT, which was about 2.04 MnT in the same period of last year.

Exports:

In line with rising crude steel productions in the nation and demand as well, the country's billet export fell by about 23% Y-o-Y and stood at 0.68 MnT in 2018 as against 0.89 MnT in 2017.

Similar fall reported on monthly export volumes by 17% on M-o-M & 62% Y-o-Y in Dec'18. As per data, South Korea has exported about 0.05 MnT Billet in Dec'18 as against 0.06 MnT in Nov'18 & 0.13 MnT in Dec'17.

Updates:

As per the SteelMint analysis, South Korea's crude steel production move up by 2% during Jan-Nov'18 to 66.29 MnT which was about 64.95 MnT in Jan-Nov'17.